Titus chapter 3, the last time that we were here, we looked at the first two verses in Titus chapter 3 and we saw Christ in these two verses. Verse 1 says, put them in mind. to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. That's Christ. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we all wish we could say that about us, but in our hearts, it's just not. It's not. We want it to be, we wish it would be, and one day in glory it will be. But in this flesh, it's not. The only person that can truly be said about is the Lord Jesus Christ. only the Lord Jesus Christ. He was subject to the principality, power, and magistrate of God the Father. He was ready to every good work. He said, don't you know I must be about my father's business. He spoke evil of no man. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Saul of Tarsus. Peter. Isn't that amazing? He was no brawler. He was gentle. He was meek. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now verse 3 says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another that's us all right that was christ and now that's us verse three is not just a good description of us it is a perfect description of us it's a perfect description verse 3 says for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish that means unwise unintelligent without understanding think about that we were without understanding is that not so we were without understanding And here's the amazing thing about the definition of that word. Without getting too technical here, you get a concordance and you look up these words. That's what I do whenever I'm studying this. I'll take each one of those words and look up in the Bible dictionary. That word is a compound of two words. The first one being alpha. Alpha is two words that make up foolish, and the first one is alpha. That means chief. That means the greatest. What it means is the greatest. We ourselves were the chief fools. We were the greatest fools. Of all the fools, we were the greatest. I know that's so. I'll speak on my own behalf. I won't speak on anybody else's behalf right now. But on my own behalf, I know that's so. Of all the sinners, we were the worst. Why would God choose us? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why would God choose me? Why would God choose us? If God chose a people, why us? Here's why. It's because we were the worst. We were the worst. We were the alpha, chief, greatest, most sinful fools that ever walked this planet. Verse three says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient. That is a compound of two words. The first one is alpha. Same thing. Chief. Greatest. The second one is unpersuadable. Not compliant. Stubbornly, willfully disobedient. That's us. That's us. Stubbornly, willfully disobedient. Verse three, we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived. That's what makes me so sad about the state of man today. Mankind is deceived, and honestly, it's always been that way. Things haven't changed, but it's just as much the case now as it ever has been. Mankind is so deceived, that word means caused to stray, led astray, led aside, caused to roam from safety and truth. Man's willing ignorance has caused him to wander away into great error. And this is what the great error is, worshiping man's own flesh. when he has no reason to worship his own flesh. We see this right here, verse three. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers, lusts, and pleasures. Serving, that means a slave to, in bondage to. Divers means different, various. Lusts means cravings for what is forbidden. A slave to cravings for what is forbidden. Pleasures means desires of the flesh. This is us, isn't it? This is us. Verse 3, we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice. That means ill will toward others. A desire to injure another. A desire to see another be injured. It literally means wickedness, depravity, evil, badness with no shame about it. With no shame about it. This is how I feel and I'm not ashamed of it. Verse three. says living in malice and envy. Envy means jealousy. It's our jealousy that produces ill will in us toward others. Verse three goes on to say hateful. And that means worthy of being hated. Okay, hateful, worthy of being hated. We act in such a way that makes us worthy of being hated. by others. The way that I act in the fiber of who I truly am in my being, people ought to hate me. I'm hateful. Verse three says, hateful and hating one another. That literally translates, the feeling is mutual. That's what it translates. We are hated because we are haters. Now listen. It takes the power of God to overcome this. It takes the power of God. It's not that man just needs a little reform. It takes the power of God to overcome this. If there is any love in us for each other, that's Christ. That's Christ in us. That can only be the will and work of Christ in us. If there is any wisdom, if there's any willingness to submit, if there is any truth, if there's any restraint, if there's any desire for good, if there's any true unity, that's Christ. Christ gets the glory for that. And that's exactly what the next few verses go on to say, all right? Verse three says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. That good work had nothing to do with us. That was all Christ. That was all Christ. Verse four says, but after the kindness and love of God, our savior toward man appeared. And we're gonna take a little bit more time with that verse in our message in a moment. So I'll read it for now and then we'll look at it here in a moment. It says, after that the kindness and love of God, our savior toward man appeared. Verse five says not by works of righteousness, which we have done. All we have to do is read verse three. That's where we started. All right. Verse three. All we have to do is read verse three and we can clearly see it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done. There were no works of righteousness in verse three. In verses one and two, it says, put them in mind to do good works, but it doesn't ever say they did them. It doesn't ever say we did them. And as a matter of fact, it plainly says we didn't do them. Verse five says not by works of righteousness, which we have done. Turn over to Psalm 14 with me. Psalm 14. Verse one says, the fool hath said in his heart, and we can read this two ways. There is, is in italics. It was added by the translators to make it more reasonable. And it is true that it is a fool who says there is no God. That's a fool. There's not a God. Well, that's a fool. The heavens declare his glory. But those two words were added by the translators and it was originally written, the fool hath said in his heart, no, God, no. How do we say no to God? Two ways, number one, in saying that We do not commit the sin that he says we do in his word. He says, this word says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're about to, well, just read it. Verse one, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. The fool hath said in his heart, no God, they are corrupt. What does the fool say? No, God, that's not me. No, I'm a good person. They have done abominable works? No, God, no, that's not me. I've only done good works. I've been a good boy and a good girl and I'm a good dad. There is none that doeth good. No, God, no, uh-uh. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. He just looked down during David's day Known to him was everything that would ever take place from the beginning. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, no. Our God says, you've sinned against me. A man says, no, I haven't. Our God says, you have not done the law that I commanded you to do. And the simple flesh says, that's not true, I have done the law. There's none that doeth good. No, what works of righteousness? There aren't any. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, there aren't any. Turn over to Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64, verse 6, it says, but we are all as an unclean thing. Man, the word is hard on us, isn't it? God's word is hard on sinful man. All of us, everybody here, we're all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Get a concordance. Get a Bible dictionary sometime and look up filthy rags and just see what it says, see what that means. I don't want to tell you right now. And we all do fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Every righteousness that we think we've ever done is just a filthy rag in God's eyes. We say, well, here you go. Look at what we did for you. Oh, he doesn't want that. Our Lord said, there is none good but God. And that's the truth concerning man. There's none good but God. Now, all right, that's the truth concerning man. Now, here is the gospel concerning Christ. First Corinthians, don't turn. First Corinthians 1.30 says, of God, Christ has been made unto us righteousness. Romans 10 verse 4 says, for every soul that God has given faith to, to believe, to truly believe on Christ, not man and Christ, but Christ alone. Romans 10 verse 4 says, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to that man or woman. It was not by works of righteousness which we have done, It was by a work of righteousness that Christ did. What was that work of righteousness that Christ did? Here it is, just listen to this. According to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. What does that mean? That's the rest of our text. I just read the rest of our text. What does that mean? What does that mean? Turn over to 2 Corinthians 5. 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 21 it says, For he hath made him, God the Father made God the Son, he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now don't turn back, but in our text in verse three, all right, verse three, where we started, you remember where we started? That's what God, the father made the son to be. That's what God the Father made the Son to be. Everything that we ourselves were. Are you saying that God the Father made Christ to be a sinner? He made him to be a disobedient fool who served lusts and pleasures and lived in malice and hate? No, no, no. God forbid. Verse 21 says, He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. We were the sinners. He was the righteous one. But God made him, the two words trade places don't do it justice. I could trade places with you right now. I could come sit in that pew and you could stand right here and I would be me sitting in the pew and you would be you standing in the pulpit. That's not what Christ did. That's not what God the Father did. God made Christ to exchange with us in a way that I can't put it, it's not lawful for a man to put it into words. I can't put it into words. The closest thing I know to say, which is, I quote it all the time, Hebrews 7, it says, he became us. I don't like to declare the other half of that truth, because I don't understand it, I don't know what it means, it feels blasphemous to me. But the transaction of God was so real and so complete He didn't just become the nice guy who said, here, how much is it? I'll pay it. I'll pay for it. God made him, I'm going to use the two words, to trade places with us. It was not by works of sin, which he had done, It was not by works of sin that he had done and it was not by works of righteousness, which we had done. We did all the sinning and he did all the righteousness, but God made him to become us. God made him. And in verse 21, the two words to be, those are in italics. You see that? If your Bible has italics, they're in italics. They were added by the translators to make it more readable. And God the Father did make him to be sin, but it was originally written to say, he hath made him sin. He made him sin. I just, that's too wonderful for me. That's much bigger than me. God made him to stand in our place so he could make us to stand in his. God made us to be righteousness. God made him to be sin. God made us to be righteousness. God made him to actually be sin. You know, if he did not actually become sin, if he just paid the debt of sin, but he didn't actually become sin, then we didn't actually become righteousness. And there's just going to be a bunch of sinners up in heaven, and you all know that can't be. We actually were made to be righteousness because he actually was made to be sin. And being the condition of what we were, Christ becoming the condition of what we were, he dealt with what we were in himself on the cross of Calvary. He dealt with us. You ever have the thought go through your mind, boy, God's not going to be happy with me. He wasn't. He was not happy with you. You're a vile, wicked, wretched sinner before God. And that's literally the place Christ stood in. And God let him have it. And he died. He was condemned to hell. I ought to be condemned to hell. You were. If Christ stood in your place, you were. And because of all of that transaction being poured out in fullness, I mean the fullness of the transaction, that's the only reason we can now stand before Him in the very place of Jesus Christ. And He can look at us and say, no sin, never one sin, never one sin. You know, people use that little phrase, justified means just as if I'd never sinned. That's not true. In Christ, there is no sin. There was no sin. It can't be found because it wasn't in Jesus Christ. Look for sin in Jesus Christ and see if you can find it. See if you can find it from his birth, his teenage years, his 20s. up to 33 and a half years. Could you ever find? No. No sin. In Him is no sin. God the Father said, I'm going to put you in Him. And in Him, there is no sin. Titus 3, where we are, is telling us what happened on the cross. That's what it's telling us. What happened on the cross to be redeemed. Let me see what I have here. Okay, I'm gonna close. Go back to Titus 3. Stopping, we're done. Titus 3. Verse 3 says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration. What is the washing of regeneration? That's the shedding of his own blood. It was his death that brought life to us. It was the righteousness given to us through his death that made us worthy for God's Holy Spirit to come to us and to quicken us again. Verse five, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. He shed his blood on us abundantly, and therefore he shed his spirit on us abundantly. All of that came through the cross of Jesus Christ, our Savior. To Him be all the glory. Right? Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done. To Him be all the glory, forever and ever. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.